Album Challenge - 1967 pt. 2 - Covered with Vanilla Fudge

Another Album Challenge and I'm going back to 1967 to get covered by Vanilla Fudge.I sorta kinda always was a big fan of Vanilla Fudge and their slow heavy extended cover versions of popular songs. When I heard their crazy take on the Supremes song You Keep Me Hangin' On playing on the radio in 1967 I went out and bought the album and it has been an influence in my taste of music ever since. I was very thrilled back in the day that when I bought the album the hit song was actually a much longer version on the LP. I also liked that the album cover reminded me of Goldfinger. I have always liked a good cover version of a song and Vanilla Fudge had plenty of them.

In October of 1968 I saw the Vanilla Fudge at the 1st Quaker City Rock Festival along with Janis Joplin, Chambers Brothers, Moby Grape and the Buddy Guy Blues Band. That was my only time seeing the Fudge. 

Over the next couple of years I got all five Vanilla Fudge albums. And many years later I would use many of their songs on my cover version mixes.

I always liked a good cover version of a good song but most of the time they were similar to the original versions. The Beatles were a good example of a band that did some covers early in their careers that didn't venture too far from the originals which was what a lot of the British Invasion bands did. The early rock and roll acts often copied earlier R&B songs in a sort of white-washing of the music. Popular music in general has always been about people doing the music of other people and rock in particular would take quite a few years for the singer songwriters to take hold and become part of the mainstream. The Vanilla Fudge was different. They radically changed the song to fit their heavy rock style and I liked that.

Vanilla Fudge in my collection:

• Vanilla Fudge, 1967
• The Beat Goes On, 1968
• Renaissance, 1968
• Near the Beginning, 1969
• Rock and Roll, 1969
• Psychedelic Sundae: The Best of Vanilla Fudge, 1993
• Out Through The In Door, 2007
• Box of Fudge, 2010